Indian Data Hacks Solve Everyday Civic Problems

BusRoutes.in is an unofficial bus route-mapping site in Chennai, India.

David McCandless, who runs the data visualization website InformationIsBeautiful.net, joined British Prime Minister David Cameron and a group of British hackers on a trip to India, where he was impressed by some elegant local data hacks and projects.

I have to confess a slight colonial attitude going into the meet. Thinking of the UK as a great hacking nation and leading data port, I was expecting to be helping the collected Indian IT professionals and activists improve their skills and give them fresh ideas on how to bootstrap their democracy.

However, our Indian counterparts very quickly astonished us with brilliant and powerful data projects and grass roots hacks using simple tools and technologies to solve everyday civic issues.

Read the full story at The Guardian.